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Sample translations submitted: 1
French to English: Extract from La Bête humaine by Emile Zola General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Poetry & Literature
Source text - French Le train devait filer d'un trait à Paris, sans arrêt aucun, sauf aux points marqués pour prendre de l'eau. Il roulait maintenant à toute vitesse. L'énorme masse, les dix-huit wagons, chargés, bondés de bétail humain, traversaient la campagne noire, dans un grondement continu. Et ces hommes qu'on charriait au massacre, chantaient, chantaient à tue-tête, d'une clameur si haute, qu'elle dominait le bruit des roues.
Jacques, du pied, avait refermé la porte. Puis, se contenant encore :
« Il y a trop de feu... Dormez, si vous êtes saoul. »
Immédiatement, Pecqueux rouvrit, s'acharna à remettre du charbon, comme s'il eût voulu faire sauter la machine. C'était la révolte, les ordres méconnus, la passion exaspérée qui ne tenait plus compte de toutes ces vies humaines. Et, Jacques s'étant penché pour abaisser lui-même la tige du cendrier, de façon à diminuer au moins le tirage, le chauffeur le saisit brusquement à bras-le-corps, tâcha de le pousser, de le jeter sur la voie, d'une violente secousse.
« Gredin, c'était donc ça !... N'est-ce pas ? Tu dirais que je suis tombé, bougre desournois ! »
Ils glissèrent tous deux, la lutte continua sur le petit pont entre les wagons. Les dents serrées, ils ne parlaient plus, ils s'efforçaient l'un l'autre de se précipiter par l'étroite ouverture, qu'une barre de fer seule fermait. Mais ce n'était point commode, la machine
dévorante roulait toujours ; et Barentin fut dépassé, et le train s'engouffra dans le tunnel de Malaunay, qu'ils se tenaient encore étroitement, vautrés dans le charbon, tapant de la tête contre les parois du récipient d'eau, évitant la porte rougie du foyer, où se grillaient leurs jambes, chaque fois qu'ils les allongeaient.
D'un dernier élan, Pecqueux précipita Jacques ; et, celui-ci, sentant le vide, éperdu, se cramponna à son cou, si étroitement, qu'il l'entraîna. Il y eut deux cris terribles, qui se confondirent, qui se perdirent.
Et la machine, libre de toute direction, roulait, roulait toujours. Enfin, la rétive, la fantasque, pouvait céder à la fougue de sa jeunesse, ainsi qu'une cavale indomptée encore, échappée des mains du gardien, galopant par la campagne rase.
Qu'importaient les victimes qu’elle écraserait en chemin ! N'allait-elle pas quand même à l'avenir, insoucieuse du sang répandu ? Sans conducteur, au milieu des ténèbres, en bête aveugle et sourde qu'on aurait lâchée parmi la mort, elle roulait, chargée de cette chair à canon, de ces soldats, déjà hébétés de fatigue, et ivres, qui chantaient.
Translation - English The train was scheduled to travel all the way to Paris without stopping, except at the designated places to take in water. By now, it was rolling along at full speed. The enormous mass of the eighteen loaded wagons, packed full of human cattle traversed the dark countryside with a continuous roar. And the men who were being carried to their deaths sang, sang at the top of their voices, making a clamour so loud that it could be heard above the sound of the wheels.
Standing now, Jacques kicked closed door of the firebox and collected himself.
“The fire has grown too large… Go to sleep if you are drunk!”
Immediately, Pecqueux opened the door once again and frantically threw in more coal as if he wanted the boiler to explode. This was a revolution; he disregarded his orders and gave in to an exasperated passion that no longer took into account all those human lives. And Jacques, having bent down to shield the ash-box and at least ease the draught a little, was grabbed suddenly by the engineman who tried to throw him onto the track with one violent jolt.
“You scoundrel, is that how it is? You would say that I fell, you damned sneak!”
The both slid down, the fight continuing onto the small bridge between the wagons. No longer speaking, they clenched their teeth as they tried to force each other down the narrow opening, that was blocked only by a single iron bar. However, this did not prove easy. As the devouring engine rolled on and on, they passed Baretin before being engulfed by the Malaunay tunnel. They grappled tightly with each other, wallowing in coal, hitting their heads against the side of the water container and avoiding the luminous red door of the firebox, which scalded their legs each time that they stretched them out.
With one last surge of momentum, Pecqueux threw Jacques; and the latter, experiencing an empty, frantic sensation clung to his neck so tightly that he pulled the both of them down together. There were two terrible cries that soon became one, then disappeared altogether.
And the engine, free from its driver, rolled on and on. At last, the unruly, whimsical thing could yield to the ardour of its youth as if it were making a savage escape from the reins of its ruler and galloping through the open countryside.
What mattered the victims that were crushed on the way! Was the engine not advancing towards the future, indifferent towards the blood spilled? Without a driver, in the midst of the darkness, like a beast that was both blind and deaf heading to its death, it rolled on, packed with cannon fodder. Those soldiers, already dazed with fatigue and drink, were singing.
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Bachelor's degree - University of Warwick
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Years of experience: 4. Registered at ProZ.com: Aug 2020.
My name is Josephine, I am a native English speaker and recent graduate in French with Japanese from the University of Warwick. I specialise in translating fiction as well as journalistic pieces relating to culture.
I am seeking opportunities to translate material from French into English.
Keywords: media, literature, television, tv, film, cinema, video games, localization, poetry, multimedia. See more.media, literature, television, tv, film, cinema, video games, localization, poetry, multimedia, translation, subtitling, . See less.
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